Review of Junebug (2005) by Max M — 31 Dec 2008

The beginning of this film is great. Director Phil Morrison employs a slow, still-image filled style to create a world that looks mundane from the outside, but is probably a tension-filled mess on the inside. Throughout the introduction, he uses small cues to suggest that there is much more to the story than what we are seeing. The problem is that Morrison never opens up and lets us see this potentially fascinating story. He places the viewer on the sidelines, and never allows him or her to engage in what is going on. Ten minutes in to the film, you begin wondering when Morrison is going to start having this tension-filled suburban setting explode, but he never does. Instead, the film continues to putter along at a snail-like pace, with absolutely nothing interesting happening. Near the end of the film, Morrison finally has some interesting events take place, but the events are so concealed, it is difficult to tell that they are even happening, mainly because Morrison continues to unfold them at his ridiculously slow pace. Also, I think that there was supposed to be some philosophical enterprises during the last couple minutes of the film, but by that point I was so bored and disengaged that I barely even noticed.

Despite the deep flaws of this film, there are still a couple of good points. The acting is fantastic. Because so much of the film is just still-images of various settings, not a single character gets very much screen time, and even when the characters are on the screen, there?s not much dialogue. However, the actors do a great job with the little time they have, especially Amy Adams. Despite the script?s major shortcomings, Adams is able to create an interesting character using purely her great performance. All of the other actors are hindered by this lack of dialogue as well, but they also make the most out of their characters with great performances.

Phil Morrison?s next movie could be great. He has a unique style that allows him to create a world that most other directors would much rather stay away from. If he develops his style, and has something actually happen, his next film will be a worthwhile viewing, unlike this one.